The Temerarious Life of Thalia Grace
by NightOwl95
Summary: Basically this is the night Thalia was born in Zeus' point of view. It starts at the winter solstice with a very paniced Zeus fearing the chaos the child will bring and ends with Zeus never wanting to leave. It is a one-shot but I may continue either with the rest of Thalia's life of with Jason's birth.


Her life started out normal enough. She came into the world the same way as every other child, kicking and screaming and covered in blood. But while most children are cleaned, wrapped in a blanket, then put to sleep by their mothers and are to never return to that traumatic state, that traumatic state would be how Thalia Cassandra Grace would spend the majority of the next 12 years. But we are getting ahead of ourselves, this story starts on Monday the 21st of December 1987.

The 12 Olympians, and Hades, were sat in their usual semi-circle, as they did every winter solstice since the beginning of time and as they will, according to Hera, continue to do every winter solstice until the very end of time. They were doing what they did best, arguing. Arguing over when Persephone would be reunited with her mother, where Zeus was between approximately 9:46am and 3:34pm today, how Poseidon had wasted his day and how Apollo's 'Get all the hunters to fall in love with me' plan would never work. And it was supposed to continue like this until the clock showed midnight, signalling the arrival of December 22nd and the end of winter solstice. But this particular solstice was different, because on this solstice Zeus was expecting a child. He had never been more thankful than he was when he arrived at Beryl Grace's house at 10 o'clock that morning and saw her sat on the sofa in one of his shirts and a pair of sweatpants, because if she was sat on the sofa mindlessly watching some old movie, it meant that she hadn't given birth and that Zeus could procrastinate dealing with the issues the child would surly bring, for a while longer. But it later occurred to him, not when he was at the house but in fact when he had returned to Hera, that if the child had not come that morning then it would most likely becoming that night. And so Zeus sat nervously on his throne waiting for his pager to buzz with Beryl's message that their child was coming and that he had better be there, like a good father, to see it. But then, almost in the blink of an eye, 5 o'clock became 11 and with only 1 hour left, Zeus let his guard down and diverted his full attention to the arguments at hand. But he should have know better, because no sooner did he opened his moth to speak did he hear the unmistakable buzz of a pager, _his_ pager. The child was coming. Zeus took a deep breath, he was the King of the Gods, he could handle this.

"Well clearly this is getting us nowhere, we have wasted all evening debating our petty problems. I say we cut our losses and all head home." There that wasn't so difficult after all-

He was pulled out of his mental victory by Hera.

"Why, do you have somewhere you need to be?"

"I'm king there is always somewhere I need to be and I am merely pointing out that we are waisting our time, I say we leave."

"Well I say we stay, what's 45 more minutes?" She had a point but Zeus' pager buzzed again and he knew there was no more time to talk.

"How unfortunate it must be for you then, as I am king and what I say goes. Meeting dismissed!" And with that Zeus hurried out of the throne room and to UCLA Hospital, California. The air was crisp with anticipation and Zeus slowly battled his way through it. All to soon the hospital doors were looming in front of the god. It wasn't to late, he could turn around, go to a local bar and forget the whole ordeal. For all he knew the child might not even be his, Beryl had denied ever sleeping with another man while they were together but he doubted that. But what kind of man would he be if he didn't even look at his possible child at least one? Zeus was a lot of things, but he wasn't that much of a coward. So he walked forward and forward and forward, heading straight for the elevator, he could guess where he was going and if he got a bit lost, oh well what can you do? But he didn't get lost, there might have been some redecorating but the route from the main entrance to the maternity ward was still committed to memory even 4 decades after the birth of his last child. He walked down the hall until he heard the familiar screams of his lover, the soon-to-be-mother of his child, Beryl Grace. He walked into the room and had to take a moment to process it all. Doctors and nurses were hurrying around grabbing scissors and towels, their hands covered in blood.

"Is everything okay?" Zeus questioned the nearest nurse.

"Everything's quite alright, in fact just a few more pushes and you'll be welcoming baby Grace into the world" she was grinning, like this was the best news in the world but Zeus couldn't bring himself to share in her excitement. _Just a few more pushes_! No this wouldn't do, it's bad enough that he's about to get a bastard child but Hera would definitely kill him if he had a child on the winter solstice.

"Honey!" Beryl called districting hind from the panic rising in his chest.

"Yes darling?" He replied like a good, supportive person should. Instead of replying Beryl grabbed his hand and squeezed it so tight Zeus was sure, if he were mortal, she would have broken his hand.

"Just a few more pushes. Just a few more pushes." The doctor, who was perched at the edge of her bed, chanted enthusiastically. Zeus glanced down at his watch, 11:59 there was hope yet.

He was half tempted to ask Beryl if she could wait a few more minutes before having the child but all his panicking seemed to have made him incapable of talking. Zeus was lost in a whirl of Beryl's screams, the doctor's chants and the hand of his watch ticking by. Until a new voice entered the mix, one louder than the rest. The doctor stood up and called out "Time of birth 12:01 am December 22nd 1987"

Zeus had barely a second of sweet, pure relief before the child continued to scream only louder this time, apparently it didn't like being upstaged by some mortal doctor.

Zeus' head snapped towards the sound but he couldn't see where it was coming from as the nurses huddled together with blankets and wipes. Then they swarmed Beryl, all but one for she had a tiny bundle of pink resting in her arms.

"Would you like to hold your child?" She asked him softly.

 _Would_ he like to hold his child? It would seem he didn't have a choice as the young nurse placed the bundle in his arms, repositioned a few things then walked toward the others. The thing made a weird sort of gurgling noise and Zeus pulled back the blanket and was so shocked he almost fell over. He look at the small girl (in hind sight he should of known it was a girl from the pink blanket) and it was like someone had cast a spell on him. He bounced the child slowly and she smiled slightly and gurgled again, like she was laughing.

"Hi," he whispered softly and she gurgled in response. "Aren't you just the prettiest thing? You look just like your mother but you have my jaw line." Zeus couldn't remember a time when he had ever spoken so gently.

"Can I hold her?" Came Beryl from the bed. Her hair was wild and her face flushed but to Zeus she was stunning. Yet he wanted to say no, turn and leave the hospital and have his baby all to himself.

"Of course you can." His mouth, forever the traitor, confirmed. He slowly passed her the child and his baby made a few new noises before settling down again her mother's chest. It was only now that Zeus realised all the doctors and nurses had left.

"What shall we call her?" Beryl asked. She had wanted to keep the gender a surprise whereas Zeus had wanted to know, this caused a lot of arguments whenever names where being discussed but with his baby girl here they had to come to a decision.

"How about something traditional?" He offered, "Like Helen or Alexandria?"

"No way," She dismissed, "How about Cassy?"

"To plain." Said Zeus.

"Okay, what about Victoria or Elizabeth?" Tried Beryl.

"To English Monarchy. I think Agalia could be quite fitting as she is one of the Graces, it means brightness."

"The meaning is nice and all but Agalia sounds like some kind of dog chew brand. _Agalia_ _Chews for dogs with strong teeth_. Any other pretty names with pretty meanings?"

"Clio perhaps? She is one of the muses, of history I think, and she's very pretty."

"Hmm... It sounds like something you'd name a dog." Beryl complained.

"What is it with you and these dog analogies? How about...Thalia. It means bloom, she is the muses of comedy and she is also the Grace of good cheer."

"Thalia? I like it!" Confirmed Beryl. "Cassy Thalia Grace, it is then."

"What? No! We are not naming my daughter 'Cassy'!" Zeus exclaimed.

"Fine fine, Thalia Cassy Grace, then." She somewhat relented.

He took a deep breath before trying for a compromise. "How about Thalia Cassandra Grace?"

"I suppose that works." She settled.

And so they spent the early hours of Tuesday morning filling in paperwork before going back to the medium sized house that would be Thalia's home, at least for the next 10 years.


End file.
